Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-09-27
THISTLE AND VOLUNTEER.
The Most Notable Points Of Difference
Between Them.
HOW SPECTATORS MAY TELL TIE Yachts APART By
THEIR SAILS WHEN THE HuLLS ARE OUT OF SIGHT
VERY UNPRoFTTABLR DIsPurArIoN


VERY UNPRoFTTABLE DIsPuTATIoN.
From the New York Sun.
The interested spectators who will go In all
sorts OF boats to part all OF the great yacht
races OF this week will have more diriculty than
they ever did before In race Of the kind in tell
Ing one yacht from another. Indeed, so nearly
alike are the two boats in most respects that II
both hulls were painted ALIKE the learned yachts
man himself when looking at them as they sailed
across his line OF vision would have to look twice
before he could distinguish one from the
other. However, unless Gen. Paine shall
decide to potlead the Volunteer clear to the
rail along the top OF her bulwarks 1t Will be an
easy matter even for the landsmen who see .
yacht race for the first time to distinguish the black
hulled cutter Thistle from the white sloop volun-
teer. SO long as the hulls are in sight There are
which will enable one to tell them apart. Thus
when the boats are not sailing before the wind the
Thistle win heel over farther, its mast will make
a sharper angle with the plane OF the horizon
than the volunteers. When the boats are sailing
before the wind, or nearly So the difference In the
exceedingly hard, Will serve to distinguish them
The balloon Jib tOpsa1i OF the Volunteer is a huge
brown triangle OF linen extending from the high
est part OF the tOpmast to the end OF the bowsprt
and away aft outside OF the shrouds on the side
on which it is set. The Thistle has a somewhat
larger sail that is made OF cream-colOred Silken
canvas II tOlerably near to the boats one can see
that the stern OF the Volunteer where 1t over
r.,
Sharpened end OF a lead pencil with half the wood
split on, while the stern OF the Thistle might be
called chtsel-shaped, being comparatively very
broad.
DIFFERENCES IN THE SAILS
There are other differences in the sails OF the
two boats which the spectator Will notice after
his attention is called to them. Thus up along
the after edge OF the Inainsail Of the Volunteer
are two or three baJtenS, or strips OF board, per-
hapS six seven feet long that are secured par
allei with the boom 10y having strips of canvas
sewed over them. The object OF these battenS Is
to make part Of the sail literally as Hat as board
The Thistle has none OF these; Der skipper. capt.
Barr derides them because he prefers TO have that
part OF the sale loose. When the two boats
trying to sail as near into the eye OF tie wind
possible ii will that that part OF the This
ties sail is Mapping vigorously: ii Is thus that
Capt. Barr says he is assured that he is close
hauled The Volunteers sail under such c1reum-
stances will be as steady as brick wall, and
the boat up into the winds eye while the Thistles
leach is really holding her back. 1t is worth men
tioning that the foot OF the Thistle's mainsai is
secured to the boom az every foot so; the other
cutters that have been. here have scorned that
Yankee idea Lacing keeps the sail f1at and when
a sail is fiat IT does better work, according TO
American experience. The triangular sail that
will be stretched from the top OF the lower mast
to the bow of the Volunteer, called usually the
foreStaySail, Will show battens its leach also,
but there is none on the IhiStleS forestaySatl
sLOoP AND CUTTER.
The Volunteer is called S,oop chiefly for three
| reasons-she is broad in proportion TO her length
and depth, she has a centerboard, and She has
only one mast SloopS have been built without
centerboardS but In these days 1t is customary to
call one-maSted yacht that has deep keel eX-
tending down from her hull cutter. Tie center
board is simply sheet OF metal or wood OF about
the proportions OF sealed envelope that is swung
vertically through the keel pivot IL its for
ward lower corner, SO that The lover after corner
drops down into the water beneath the keel until
a triangle about haif'aS large the board Is eX-
posed ike o fin. This nm may now De called the
distinctive feature OF the Sloop for While the soop
Is st wider than the c;:,;er, the latest idea OF
what a cutter should be gives her q breadth but
very little less than what the latest ideas say 4
Sioop must have. Most Americans think the Vol.
unteer Is pretty nearly right in its proportions be-
| tween length and breadth; 4 lew Americans and
most all Engshmea think the Thistle shows the
right proportions. These proportions in the TWO
| boats are as follows:
Water Draught
Line Length. Breadth. or Water
1nlStlp .SS.tO Ib-3O 400
The result OF this weeks races Will undoubtedly
indicate, though not wholly demonstrate, which
model has the better proportions. There are other
features OF the models aside from length breadth
and draught on which the victory Will have an i'm
portant bearing. One OF these features is the
OF The midship section This term midShip section
is good one, because the section meant is the
section OF greatest area, and it is located in the
Volunteer go per cert OF her length from her STEM
Just what the difference in the areas is cannot be
TOLD, because Mr.. Watson Will not allow any one
TO measure his drawings. The Volunteers area is
90 square feet; rule-of-thunb combination OF
width and draught gives the ThiStle'S at about
115.5. 1t is probably more than this. Therefore
II appears that the wedge bow OF the Thistle will
have TO open more water than Will the bow of the
Volunteer but since the wedge is narrower at its
base it is expected to do Its work easier than the
Volunteer can DO what it has to do. 1t Will have
to do 1t a good deal easier TO win, because
the sail area above it is not SO great as the
less power Will be applied to drive the
Thistle along.
DIFFERENCES IN KEEL
The keel OF the Volunteer Is pretty good model
oP fho r,,pp nf I'm Eata ho Eaa1 oP
the Thistle sweeps up from the heel Of the stern
post s1ngularly like the sweep OF the keel OF the
famous Old schooner America. The ThfStle'S keel
is stu more like that OF the old Baltimore clippers
which were famous boats eighty years ago. The
cutter advocates assert this year, though nothing
was heard from them about the advantages OF
beam either last year. the year before any other
previous year, that the Thistle is a normal British
cutter. AS Mr.. Bell, her owner, said, She has the
beam which was given 20 cutters good many
tax on beam In British yachting rules had been
adopted. But, while ready to compare the Thisties
model with those Of British boats built thirty or
forty years ago. they insist on comparing the Vol.
unteer with American boats built ten years ago.
II the Thistle is the normal British model in the
matter OF beam and depth, why not refer to the
beam and draught OF the America, which gave her
name to the cup Tor which these races are sailed
as the normal American proportions? When IL Is
| considered that the America had no centerboard
when she won the cup, would it be too much TO
say that even one-masted Keel boat-one with.
British ideas? The next American SlOOp will have
to be made proporttUnately narrower and deeper
say % feet inches wide AID with IL feet inches
draught, for those are the measurements OF the
America-if she Is to get to the normal American
proportions OF 1851
The unprejudiced student Of naval architecture
must see that while Mr.. Watson has, perhaps, re-
turned to very Old English proportions in some
respects he was induced to do so by the superb
Ortty of American broad beamed boats over such
narrow beams as the GeneSta and the Galatea
No one doubts the Mayfower'S ability to whip any
cutter atlOat, except the Thistle. On the other
hand 1t is equally plain that the success of such
cutters as the Madge and Clara led American de-
SigneTS to return more and more to such proper
lions as the America had. Mr.. Bell himself says
that American rules OF measurement are perfectly
fair and moreover leave the designer free TO adopt
the model that will best cleave the water, while
the recent resembling Of the Old British rule shows
how it hampered the designer.
WHERE EACH HAS THE GREATEST DRAUGHr OF WATER.
Not only does the Thistle differ from the volun-
teer In having its greatest draught OF water at the
heel OF the Sternpost while the Volunteers is well
amidships, but she differs In the way she is cut
away forward; that Is, there Is good deal OF the
volunteers hull below the water line forward OF
her mast, and very little OF the Thistles forward
OF her mast. This Is very great departure from
calls the narrow GeneSta or the Old cutter Arrow,
built In 1S46 and licked by the America In 1851.
the normal cutter model. Here Is another feature
OF q model that will be called good or bad accord
ing as victory perches on one side or the other.
Another feature under water worth considering Is
| the drOop OF the blgeS The bilge OF a vessel Is
that part where the side Of the hull instead OF be-
| ing q vertical plane, begins to bend in under
| toward the center OF the SHIP The volunteers